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9 Soc. & Soc. Work Rev. 227 (2025)
Youth Gangs between Crime Control and Social Inclusion: A Critical Examination of Competing Paradigms in Italy

handle is hein.journals/socwkv9 and id is 228 raw text is: Sociology and Social Work Review Volume 9 (Issue 1)/2025 | pp. 227-238 DOI: 10.58179/SSWR9117 https://globalresearchpublishing.com/sswr/ Youth Gangs between Crime Control and Social Inclusion: A Critical Examination of Competing Paradigms in Italy Pierluca Massaro a * a University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy Abstract This article critically examines the competing paradigms that have shaped the study, representation, and governance of youth gangs in Italy. Drawing on a wide body of criminological, sociological, and ethnographic literature, the paper contrasts the dominant criminological paradigm-rooted in classical traditions of social control and risk management-with the constructivist and cultural approaches that emphasise the role of social exclusion, identity negotiation, and resistance in the formation of youth street groups. The so-called baby gang phenomenon in Italy provides a revealing case study of how public discourse, media narratives, and official data converge to construct youth groups as threats to public order. This construction, in turn, legitimises repressive policies and emergency legislation, often at the expense of preventive and inclusive social measures. Keywords: Youth gang; Immigration; Criminalisation; Resistance; Constructivism; Social control. 1. Governance through Fear: Media Frames, Migration, and Youth Gang Narratives in Italy Unlike in the United States, where the study of gangs has deep historical roots dating back to the Chicago School (Thrasher 1927), in Italy the phenomenon of youth gangs has followed a different trajectory. For a long time, these groups were considered alien to the native urban social fabric. Only in the early 2000s did the issue begin to attract the attention of public discourse, institutions, and scientific research. This shift coincided with rising social alarm linked to migration processes and the perception of urban insecurity (Dal Lago 1999; Maneri 2009; Saitta and Palidda 2010). * Corresponding author. Pierluca Massaro. E-mail address: pierluca.massaro@uniba. it.